A fresh public interest litigation (PIL) was filed on Thursday (March 19) in the Supreme Court seeking directions for immediate removal of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters from Delhi's Shaheen Bagh in view of the serious health risks posed by the outbreak of coronavirus in India and other parts of the world.
The PIL was filed by Advocate Ashutosh Dubey.
Notably, thousands of protesters have been agitating at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act, National Register of Citizen (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) since December 15, 2019. On Tuesday, members of Residents Welfare Association and senior Delhi Police officials had urged the protesters to call of their protest in the wake of health hazard posed by the coronavirus.
For his part, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had invoked Epidemic Act in the national capital, saying that gathering with more than 50 persons, excluding weddings, will not be allowed in Delhi in order to check the spread of the deadly virus.
A total of 169 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported in India, including three people who have lost their lives due to coronavirus.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday (March 19) urged the Centre to order an "immediate lockdown of all our towns and cities for 2-4 weeks" in order to curb the spread of the deadly virus in the country.
Chidambaram was referring to World Health Organisation (WHO) statement in which all countries were urged to "isolate, test and treat every suspected case" and work over time to trace every possible contact made by suspected coronavirus patients.
"After WHO Director General's statement yesterday, there should be no hesitation in ordering an immediate lockdown of all our towns and cities for 2-4 weeks," Chidambaram said.
